Parenting

Question 1

Benefits of Parenting

Answer 1

• Protection
• Nourishment
• Teaching

slow human development.. much larger brain size but born much more prematurely (74% brain growth and development post-birth)

Question 2

Humans are the only primate that

Answer 2

1. have an irregularly shaped birth canal
2. need regular labor/delivery assistance
3. seek assistance during delivery

Question 3

Conflicts in Parenting

Answer 3

Offspring contain genes of their parents so parents will be bound to look after their genetic investment, but parents have several loyalties:

1. Care for current offspring
2. Need to maintain own health to produce future offspring

Question 4

Parent-Offspring Conflict

Answer 4

Offspring related to self by 1.0, but to parent only .5 & to siblings only .5. Problem.

– offspring A matures, best interest of parents to invest in offspring B, not in offspring A’s best interests though (PISSED OFF MAN)

– older parents should be more willing to invest in existing offspring

Question 5

Infanticide

Answer 5

genetics – not worth it to raise:

1. non-related indiv.
2. “damaged” indiv.
3. normal indiv. when lacking proper resources

ex. : - male fish eating eggs for nutrients
- hamsters kill & eat litter when resources scarce
- male lions kill non-genetically related offspring in newly acquired pride
- male lemurs “ “
- female marsh birds break eggs of predecessors when become in charge

Question 6

Infanticide in Humans

Answer 6

3 Predictions:

1. Parent aggression towards offspring should vary based on reproductive value; infanticide fall as age of child increases
2. Infanticide should be greatest in 1st year of life
3. Infanticide should look different from non-relatives (increases from 14-17)

Question 7

Sibling Rivalry

Answer 7

Widspread siblicide

ex: - eagles - older chick kills younger
- tiger sharks - largest baby eats smaller siblings in uterus
- skua chick - other hick harasses younger til it leaves nest
- carnivorous tadpoles eat smaller, weaker omnivores

Question 8

Human Sibling Rivalry

Answer 8

Develop traits to access different parent resources (ie. not intelligence, but creativity, rebeliiousness)

Question 9

Mother-Fetus Conflict

Answer 9

Fetus wants to maximize resources from mom while mom wants to maximize number of healthy offspring

ie. glucose conflict w/carbs
ie. blood supply (hi bw = hi bp; lo bw = lo bp)

Question 10

Mother-Father Conflict

Answer 10

Some imprinted genes paternal, some maternal - can set up conflict .. paternal genes = limbic, big body, larger growth; maternal = prefrontal, big brain, reduces growth

Question 11

Step-Parents

Answer 11

Gene-perspective:

1. step-mothers caring for unrelated child reduces fitness more than step-father (less variability in reproductive success)
2. fathers have greater uncertainty so contrast b/w putative genetic offspring & stepchildren is smaller

+ stepmothers have greater reproductive cost than stepfathers

Question 12

Kin biased behavior

Answer 12

different behavioral responses to kin vs. to non-kin

Question 13

kin recognition

Answer 13

cognitive (mid-brain) mechanisms that allow animals to classify others as kin or non-kin

possible mechanisms:

1. association/familiarity
2. phenotype matching

Question 14

Offspring recognition

Answer 14

visual cues, auditory cues (parents recognize babies’ cries within 24 hrs), olfactory cues

Question 15

Parent recognition

Answer 15

features of face, in utero learning (fetal heart rate drops when mother speaks), rooting for breast

Question 16

Phenotype matching

Answer 16

matching own characteristics & thus inferring relatedness

ex. - odor discrimination (squirrels spend more time investigating more unrelateds’ scents)

• humans: trusting relateds w/$
  + face that is more like self vs. less like self
• chimps: 1. match-to-sample task; 2. images of unfamiliar chimps; 3. conditions: indiv recognition, mom-daughter, mom-son, control … completely at chance in choosing pics parent from child